In the late ’90s and early 2000s, wellness wasn’t a big deal: vegans were weirdos, yoga was for hippies, and shakes were something you drank after a night out, not something to “boost your immune system” or “detoxify.”
Being thin was fashionable in the world of glossy magazines—Kate Moss famously said, “Nothing feels better than being thin”—and maintaining a sample size was a top priority for the models and celebrities I worked with on a daily basis.
We magazine reporters wanted to wear those clothes, so we carefully controlled our food intake, although my penchant for drinking, late-night parties, and potato dishes meant I rarely got around to wearing any of the clothes on the fashion shelves.
Diets in the 90s
In the ’90s, models, celebrities, and everyday people got super slim, not because of a balanced diet of lean protein, slow-digesting carbohydrates, and plenty of vegetables, but because they drank copious amounts of Diet Coke and Marlboros.
Sugar was something we all knew we could eat because the calories on the back of a Frosty or a Party Ring didn’t seem that high. It never occurred to us that sugar could turn into fat.
Sugar was so accepted that Chupa Chups candies were handed out backstage at fashion shows.
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Bridget Jones’s battle with her body image is emblematic of so many of us. We’ve all had the timer on the calorie counter ringing in our heads. You eat toast and biscuits at the office, plus a ready-to-eat sandwich and seven cocktails and a bowl of nuts, and you’ve got 3,000 calories and you’re filled with self-loathing.
To combat this excess, we tried horrible diets like the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Cayenne Pepper Diet, the Atkins Diet, and did spin/Legs Bums and Tums sessions until we nearly passed out.
Despite all the pain and sweat and hardship, I still didn’t look the way I wanted to, and I wonder if Victoria Beckham, who recently said she feels stronger now than she did in her twenties when she was “addicted” to green juice, was similarly depressed.
VB and I are both 50 now and have changed our approach to exercise.
Our new approach
When it comes to fitness, Victoria says she’s in the strongest shape she’s ever been and seems happier about her body. She trains with a personal trainer five times a week, focusing on weight training rather than cardio.
I still run with my dog, but training twice a week using my own body weight (push ups, chair tricep dips, etc.) and free weights has transformed the way I look and feel. Building muscle helps your body burn more calories at rest, which means you can eat more food.
Ah, the calories. I’m not tallying them up in my head like I used to. I’m just making sure to eat nutritious foods that don’t get too much work done. To quote author Michael Pollen, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
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Of course, we don’t think VB has completely changed tack: She still says she’s “very disciplined in how I eat, how I exercise, how I work. That’s just who I am.”
Many people may wonder if she’s too skinny, but she feels a little more relaxed and in a better shape to her ideal body. I’ll let her have the final say.
“I don’t want to be one of those people who says, ‘One glass of wine has too many calories.’ Life is short. Let’s enjoy it.”
cheers.
